Meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Asturias.

Solomon sat at the left of the table, opposite to the right was the Duke of Medici, below them sat the ministers of the cabinet, and above the table, Queen Tiffany.

After getting married and becoming the queen, Tiffany was a little different from before, she was always a little girly and thin, and occasionally showed a little sudden dazed and lonely.

Now she looked solemn, sitting upright on top of her, with her hands on the table. She wears a gorgeous dress, the dress cleverly uses lace, muslin, ruffles, and ribbons and bows, noble and gentle, and the silk or silk of the same material as the clothing wraps every button of the dress, the whole body is integrated, reflecting the meticulous workmanship of the customization, so that people are impeccable details; the waist part is thin and narrow, in line with people's habitual aesthetics, and the lower part of the body appears to be swollen, in stark contrast to the thin waist, which is a hemispherical skirt supported by thin steel bars, with multiple layers of wrinkles, Elements such as shirring make the floor-length skirt look like an upside-down cake.

Some socially inclined ladies prefer a different type of skirt that is flat at the front and back at the back, such as thickened hip pads to accentuate the buttocks.

"This brings us to the first discussion, concerning the free sale and possession of firearms. Some people have asked us to allow the free sale and possession of muskets, in order to expand the market, and to avoid the monopoly of the acquisition and sale by Fadell Ltd., which is a disservice to their interests, I don't know Duke Solomon, what do you think?" The Secretary of State is now Ludendorff of the Spencer family, and it is more appropriate for him to hold this sensitive position, which can make the royal family and the dukes relatively reassured. So after Tiffany ascended to the throne. He went from Home Secretary to Secretary of Defense.

All looked to Solomon. This matter had a great deal to do with him, and it was also evident that any large sale of muskets was regulated in order to maintain Asturias' advantage in this regard, as the sale of muskets was temporarily controlled externally.

Two years ago, Titania also began to use its own muskets, but the efficiency and speed of installation were far inferior to Asturias, and the quality of muskets could not be compared. Because they are still in the stage of pure handicrafts, the relevant parts of the muskets are hammered out by craftsmen.

And Asturias because of the automatic production line after the magic of Romon, although the daily maintenance cost is high, but the output of this production line alone is very amazing, and now Asturias has more than a new army established by Solomon to carry out all musket loads.

Affected by external control, the musket basically only has the domestic market, but the civilian sector has not been completely opened, and the main market is the new army that is being built, but the military department has long been nourished by the muskets produced by the automatic production line, both in terms of quality and the batch of quantities that can be supplied. All of them are incomparable to other musket workshops.

After several years of muskets, and have been used in large quantities. The military department has understood the significance of the musket, that is, it can make a large number of ordinary people also become valuable combat power, the combat effectiveness of ordinary people of the human race is originally not comparable to that of other races, but it is not inferior in the number and quality of the strong, and with the help of the power of the gods such as the Church of Light and the Church of the God of War, plus tactics and cooperation, they can suppress them;

However, in the use of muskets, if the standards produced by different workshops are inconsistent, it will pose an obstacle to maintenance and maintenance, so it is necessary to unify the standards as much as possible, such as bullets and replacement spare parts.

After several years of use, it is only natural for the military department to purchase products that can maintain stable quality and can be shipped in large quantities.

The automatic production line established by Solomon has incomparable advantages in these two points, no one can compare with the production efficiency, and the production of magic can also ensure stable quality. Of course, it means that there is a certain quality, not that every musket is the best, because even if it is a handicraft workshop, there will be excellent craftsmen to create excellent products, but their problem is that they can't stabilize the dìng.

In order to improve the output and quality, other musket workshops, although they have realized assembly line operations in various processes, but they still need a lot of manpower support, they are also trying to improve the process, increase machinery to assist, but the scale is always incomparable with the magic guide production line.

The magic guide production line can almost be regarded as a small golden finger in this era, but this golden finger can be opened because of Solomon's hard work, because it was not brought by him, but he laid the foundation in the early stage and integrated the existing resources.

Theoretically speaking, anyone can create a magic guide production line like him, because they use existing resources.

But if it weren't for the various methods he has been trying to use to reflect exchange value from currency, from a platform such as gathering magicians to form a magic research institute, the emergence of a magic guide production line seems to be far away, and maybe even not appear.

Therefore, in terms of capital and connections, even if other musket workshop owners unite and form joint production factories in the form of shares, they still cannot shake the determination of the military department to purchase Solomon's muskets.

But the pressure on the military and Ludendorff was also very great, and the muskets produced were not allowed to be sold to foreign countries at will, and the largest fat in the country was monopolized by Solomon.

In order to appease the public anger, the military department could only continue to purchase some other musket workshops with training guns, but it still refused to let go of the official installation;

But this was certainly not enough for the market for the production of muskets, so some businessmen also raised their voices in parliament, demanding that the ban on foreign sales should be lifted or the domestic market should be opened.

"It is not yet time to immediately lift the ban on the sale of muskets to other countries. We are in a dominant position in the production of muskets in terms of quality and volume, but our relations with other countries are quite delicate at present. Solomon said.

Everyone nodded slightly. to the current situation. After the failure of the Church of Light and the Saxons in their plot against Asturias. Because Asturias ended the coup d'état in time and did not really lose their vitality, no matter how much they were unwilling, they could only stop, and due to the intensification of the contradictions with Titania, in the past two years, an alliance of the Church of Light, Saxon and Aurora Kadong Beast Plains has been formed in Keos, and Titania and Asturias are both common opponents of the first two, but Titania and Asturias are fighting and not breaking the strange situation.

In this case. Titania is definitely not a good partner of Asturias, as long as one side shows weakness, like the coup d'état of the year, if it turns into a large-scale and protracted civil war, Titania will definitely not hesitate to get a piece of the pie, of course, vice versa, Asturias is also the same.

"Titania is already mass-producing muskets and has begun to install legions, but they are currently only able to produce front-loading muskets in large quantities, so we should continue to maintain the ban on the sale of muskets for now. For the security of the kingdom now prevails over the interests of a few merchants. Solomon said, "As for the procurement of the military department." There is nothing wrong with quality and batch assurance, and the military department can call all producers and openly compare purchases so that no one misunderstands. As for the liberalization of free sale and possession in the country, I completely agree, after all, we need to provide a market for musket merchants, otherwise their goods will not be able to sell and make a profit, which will be disadvantageous in the long run. ”

Everyone nodded, and Solomon insisted on controlling the supply to the military department, but agreed to open up private holdings to increase the market.

But there was not much opposition to this, because in the field of musket production there were no other powerful people involved.

After Tiffany became queen, the merchants demanded the abolition of monopolies, and the voice of free trade became louder and louder, but the old privileges could not be shaken in a day or two, such as the sale of muskets just now, Ludendorff had to bring it up, it is very likely that someone in the nobility did it deliberately, because if Solomon himself was unwilling to abolish the privileges of the musket business, then of course some of the privileges of others could also be the same.

"Ladies and gentlemen, but free trade is sooner or later, and it will surely become the national policy of our country in the future. The reason why I maintain mercantilism now is that my country has not yet been able to gain clear advantages. Let's think about it, once China's commodities occupy various advantageous positions in foreign trade, the cost is lower than others, and the quality is better than others, then free trade can bring more benefits to our businessmen under the trade of mercantilism. In terms of muskets alone, as soon as Titania has the ability to produce rear-loading muskets, it will be time for us to abolish the ban on sales. Solomon said.

"It's the same with other goods, and in the near future, as long as we have the advantage, we should propose free trade. ”

"What if they don't want to?" said Duke Byron, narrowing his eyes.

"Then war. Solomon said coldly, "I have heard the saying that the person who stands in the way of your prosperity is more hateful than killing your father and mother. ”

When this is said in the lower council, it should be cheered. Benjamin laughed, his words softened the atmosphere just now, and everyone laughed, including Her Majesty the Queen and the two clerks.

Attendance at cabinet meetings is usually only available to the Cabinet ministers, except for special permissions, such as if it is necessary to consult the Magic Institute in the study of magic, but there are two other who do not belong to the Cabinet Ministers, one is the Cabinet Clerk, who needs to record everyone's speeches, form minutes and materials, and provide them to the participants after each meeting, and the other is the Queen's personal clerk, usually a woman, in addition to the records of the Cabinet Clerk, the Queen's personal clerk must keep a separate tendentious record, that is, she must be aware of the Queen's different concerns in matters and record them separatelyand also to rank the attention of their own records and those submitted by the Cabinet Clerk, and to identify the key points, so that the Queen can browse them in a timely manner according to the important procedures.

In this way, the contradiction of musket sales was resolved, and the ban on private sales and possession could not only expand the market and satisfy merchants, but also be beneficial to the kingdom, which could make it easier to supply soldiers, and muskets would be used directly after being conscripted, so that the training time could also be shortened.

Other policies towards the kingdom, such as the second item to be discussed, will also be of great benefit to the kingdom to re-encourage the exploration and conquest of the Otherworld.

The danger of the development of the heterotopic plane, especially the development of the higher heterotopic plane, is also proportional to the increase. Even if the kingdom sends troops. Often, only the main trade routes can be maintained. However, there is no guarantee that the merchants will be safe on the new business routes they are opening up all the time.

When the private sale of muskets was allowed, it became easier for merchants to form convoys and to protect themselves.

After the next discussion took place in the Cabinet meeting, a projection map was finally shown.

The projected map shown in front of everyone was much more beautiful than the simple hand-drawn map that Solomon himself had seen yesterday.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think about the Plane Control Law and the transportation blueprint I just proposed?" said Solomon, looking around at the Cabinet.

The ministers present at the meeting showed a solemn posture, which is not a trivial matter. This further weakens the power of individual noble lords and concentrates them in the hands of parliament and cabinets.

"Solomon, this may be a good idea, but it seems that the construction investment required is too great, and it may not be anything at first, if it is only the passage between St. Quentin and the plane, and the passage between St. Quentin and any cardinal point city, but if there is a passage connection between any two cardinal point cities, this cannot be supported by our national strength. The Duke of Medici finally spoke, having been Prime Minister for a while. So there is some understanding of the kingdom as a whole.

"The main line, that is, any passage connected to Saint-Quentin. It must be controlled by the kingdom, because it is related to the basic security of the kingdom, as for the investment, a special tax can be levied in the initial stage, and then the parliament can be asked to agree to withdraw a fixed amount of money from the goods Guan Ruizhong, and in the later stage, it is necessary to rely on the fee to maintain the daily and subsequent construction of new passages, as long as the merchants can benefit from it, the construction of these fixed passages should not be a problem. ”

Everyone nodded their heads and agreed with Solomon's statement that even if the kingdom was invaded, as long as St. Quentin did not fall, it would have the power to fight back.

"But the feeder connections between the cities of the base point may not be entirely built by the kingdom, but by merchants or consortia who are willing to contribute to the fund, and the kingdom allows them to franchise for a certain number of years. After they raised the funds to build it, they managed it, allowing them to form a small escort to maintain law and order, or they could hire the local garrison of the kingdom to help maintain security, but they had to pay a fee, but they had the advantage of being able to charge a teleportation fee. Solomon said.

He came up with the idea of collecting tolls on the highway before the crossing, and if the construction of the branch line between the basic cities had to be financed by the kingdom, it would be indeed overwhelming.

But if it is funded by the merchants, it is different, because of the trend of profit, the merchants will contribute money and efforts, which is the power of capital.

However, there will naturally be a threshold for building a transmission channel, and this threshold is industry.

Why?

Because very simply, today's teleporters, especially if they need to transport large quantities of goods, need to be built bigger and bigger, and the greater the supply of mana will be.

The magic required for teleportation is basically used in Black Rock after the appearance of Black Rock, and the magic crystal and high-energy magic crystal are used for applications like the Source Force Gun or other high-end magic guides.

The use of black rock, if it is specifically for the supply of transmission channels to build a steam blast furnace, the cost is too high, will guide zhì no one wants to use, after all, the basic point between the city is not only the transmission of this way, in the past people can pass, but it takes time and safety to arrive, there will be a teleportation point will be much more convenient, for merchants to save time is also money, goods can be guaranteed security, so it is sure that the safety of the merchants, there will be people willing to invest in the branch line, but if the cost of transmission is too high and affect the throughput, that is another matter, merchants with low trade margins may prefer to take the traditional route rather than teleport.

So if a steam blast furnace were built specifically to supply the mana needed for teleportation, it would be very small unless there was other strategic value in that place, which would not be done with normal investment.

The condition for the construction of the basic point of urban transmission is that there must be an industrial zone in the area, or there will be the potential to become an industrial zone in the future, otherwise there will not be enough steam blast furnaces to use black rock, instead of simply using coal, resulting in the lack of the magic needed to supply.

Solomon's simple map lists the distribution of mines, or other locations that may have been used in industrial production to form industrial zones, depending on the kingdoms surveyed, and only these sites are the earliest places that could become cardinal cities, because they have the advantage of having a foundation.

Of course, in the future, if the kingdom is extremely rich in resources, with inexhaustible black rocks and magic crystals, which can supply magic power and provide source power for the further development of magic guidance, it will theoretically be able to build more teleportation points, even if there is no industrial area.

Everyone has such a faint thought, and it is hot.

Conquering more planes might be the way to do that?

Tiffany and Solomon's gaze touched slightly, and Solomon stood up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of this cabinet meeting, regarding the plane control law and the traffic blueprint, I hope you will consider it and make a decision on whether to formally submit it to the queen and the parliament at the next cabinet meeting." ”

Accompanied by the clerk, Tiffany left first, and Solomon was about to leave when she was stopped by the Duke of Bourbon.

"Solomon, if you have time, this afternoon Clausa and I hope to invite you to a wonderful afternoon tea. (To be continued......)